The present invention relates to faucets, and in particular to faucets with spray heads providing spray control.
Conventional faucets have a faucet body, one or more flow control/mixing valves, one or more control handles, and a spout. The spout acts a conduit for expelling water that has passed through the valve(s), in which case the outflow is either fixed to begin at a single point, or in the case of a pivotal spout is limited to begin over a range of a prescribed horizontal arc.
Faucets have conventionally been provided with separate stand-alone hand-held sprayers to provide the user with more flexibility with regard to the direction and point that outflow begins, particularly to facilitate spraying down dishware. These sprayers have a flexible hose attached to the spray head allowing the spray head to be pulled from a mount and moved about as needed. However, these faucets require extra room on the counter top for the sprayer mounting, as well as a separate hole through the counter top.
As an alternative, faucets with pull-out spray heads projecting from the main faucet body have been developed. See generally U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,213,26,8; 5,546,978; 5,758,690 and 6,370,713. The first two of these references have the sprayer unit extend from the side of the faucet body, and the latter two have the sprayer unit extend from the upper end of the faucet body.
Assembly of such pull-out faucets is usually more complicated then conventional faucets due to the added valve and spray control hardware required to be packed in the faucet. Also, separate fasteners are ordinarily needed to install the valve assembly in the faucet body.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,738,996 discloses a pull-out type faucet with a spray head that has a temporary flow interrupting control, or “pause” button, and a flow diverter control to route flow to different discharge orifices of the spray head. The diverter control is a push button type control that is depressed perpendicular to the axis along with the valve member moves. Depressing the button once moves a trigger to cam against a toggle member and drive the valve in one direction. The toggle changes states during this operation so that the next time the button is depressed it causes the trigger to move the valve in the opposite direction.
This arrangement is rather complex and is susceptible to incomplete or inconsistent actuation of the valve if the toggle does not move into the proper position following the previous actuation. Moreover, the user undertakes the same motion, a straight downward push of the button, to select both flows. Consequently, it is not readily apparent which flow will be selected with each push of the button.
A need therefore exists for an improved spray control assembly for a faucet, particularly a pull-out type faucet.